Summer Fruit Cake

I know I know, Summer is gone for this year and I am too late to make this kind of cake now. But hey, this is one of the advantage of living in California. You can get berries, peach, almost anything all year long, although it may not be as tasty as summer though.

It was my brother's mother in law's and my 3-year-old niece's birthday last week. They were two days apart and both birthdays fell on weekdays. So we decided to celebrate it on Saturday and invite close friends and family members only. I was planning to make two cakes, one for Saturday, and another one for my niece's sunday school at church. For Sunday cake, I was going to make a Castle Cake (more of this later). Since the guest on Saturday party were mostly adult, I decided to make a cake that has a lot of fruits and is not so filling. Besides, this cake has been on my to-make-cake list from the beginning of summer!

So, here it is, 10-in cake with three layers of cotton sponge cake, a layer of vanilla bean pastry cream in the bottom layer, and Grand Marnier chantilly cream(known as whipped cream) with lots of fruits (strawberry, kiwi, mandarin oranges, white nectarine, yellow peach). Then the whole thing is covered with more Grand Marnier cream and decorated with lots of fruits and mint leaves and also green chocolate leaves. If you know me, you'll know that I don't like making a plain vanilla cake with whipped cream filling and frosting (which should be what summer fruit cake/summer cream cake usually). I tried to always put something that'll give some zing or spark to it
(this is why I have lots and lots of liqueur and spirits in my pantry). I also try not to use one kind of filling for 3 layer cakes. I like to combine texture and taste. For the leaves, I used lemon leaves and white chocolate that has been tinted with a little green coloring.

By the way, this cake is tall! and I mean TALL for it's size! I was pretty sure that there will be plenty leftovers as the birthday lady is old already (and she doesn't really eat lots of cake) and the guests were also the kind of people that don't care too much about cake. Besides, they're going to be pretty full after the dinner feast. But I was wrong! The cake was gone, except for one slice. I was going to try that cake the day after (as I was quite full). The guests weren't that many people, so each person get a huge cake, probably the serving of two or two and a half portions (remember, the cake is tall too). They liked the cake so much, even the birthday lady finished her plate. I didn't see any plates with even a little cake leftover in the trash can, even the kids!

I wish I can show you guys the inside of this cake, but it was gone too fast. The quality of the picture is not that great either. It was taken at night just before the guest had arrived. So, it's a little "yellow-y". The sad part is, when I was going to eat the one slice leftover cake in the fridge after coming from work, I found an empty plate with cream on it. Hik...hik...somebody ate it. So, I didn't get the eat the cake AT ALL! how sad. But I guess I should be happy that they like it. That's the biggest accomplishment and prize that a baker can have :).